December 2013: French hotels maintain activity

Thanks to business generated by the traditional year-end celebrations, French hoteliers were able to obtain results similar to the previous year on the month of December, although global results for the year 2013 are no less morose overall.

Business generated by the traditional year-end celebrations allowed French hoteliers to end 2013 with a level of results similar to those of December 2012. The national RevPAR, across all categories, shows a moderate increase by 0.3%, driven by the 0.5 point improvement in occupancy rate that makes up for the 0.7% drop in average daily rates. In a morose economic context, worsened by the forecast of new fiscal measures that are not favorable to tourism -and business tourism in particular- the upscale segment is no longer able to act as a motor in the French hotel segment. It is showing a new drop by 3.1% in its Revenue per available room on the period, resulting from the slump in both the occupancy and average daily rates of properties. The other categories did well, however, with indicators on an uptrend for budget to midscale segments.

In December 2013, the room shortage in Paris allowed the capital to maintain occupancy rates similar to last years' over the same period, but not enough to compensate for the 1.1% drop in average daily rates. Paris's hotel segment thus shows a 1% drop in its Revenue per available room. With a RevPAR clearly below that of Paris, the other French regions were nonetheless able to improve the results of their properties with a 1.9% increase in Revenue per available room for hotels in the provinces, resulting from the good performance of average daily rates (+1%) and occupancy rates (+0.5 point). This progress may be explained in particular by the success of traditional year-end events, such as the Christmas Markets in Alsace and the Festival of Lights in Lyon, but also exceptional events such as the closing ceremonies of Marseille Provence 2013. The Ile-de-France (outside Paris) is also on a growth curve with 4.4% improvement in the Revenue per available room at its properties.

The French hotel sector thus closed the year 2013 with an average drop by 0.7% in its RevPARenue per available room. Across the year 2013, the drop in the RevPAR is due to a slight drop in occupancy of properties (-0.2 point in occupancy) but also average daily rates (-0.4%). (read our article)